The Beniker Gang

Kenneth William “Ken” Kwapis is an American film and television director and screenwriter. He specialized in the single-camera sitcom in the 1990s and 2000s and has directed feature films such as Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and He's... Just Not That into You. Kwapis was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and grew up in neighboring Belleville. He is of Polish descent and was raised Catholic, attending the Jesuit preparatory academy St. Louis University High School. He earned a Bachelor's degree at Northwestern University's School of Speech, after which he traveled west to enroll in the M.F.A. program at the USC School of Cinema-Television. Kwapis’ twenty-four minute thesis film, For Heaven's Sake, won the Student Academy Award in 1982. The film is a contemporary adaptation of Mozart's one-act opera Der Schauspieldirektor . Kwapis is married to Marisa Silver, with whom he has two sons. In 1983, Kwapis directed Revenge of the Nerd for CBS' Afternoon Playhouse, followed by Summer Switch for ABC's Afterschool Special.
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